Some games like to combat piracy with DRM, a code unique to a game that was legitimately purchased, while other games like to get a little more creative with their piracy prevention. With Serious Sam 3: BFE, for example, developer Croteam decided that DRM was less of a deterrent than something like an invincible, super fast, scorpion-like creature that does nothing but try to kill Sam the second piracy is detected.

not gonna lie i would be pretty p****d off if that followed me around more than silly DRM makes the game basically un-playable so big up to the dvs of that one however like everything else only time will tell when the pirates just simply remove the files or find a patch or a way around this aswell

I remember the devs on Batman AA also did this (batman unable to glide) and in GTA4 (wobbly camera). Affected users would claim these bugs on official forums only to be flamed of having an illegal copy

That would indeed be very frustrating. And how many times would a player that hadn't heard about this have to try before realizing that it can't be killed. Frustrating isn't a strong enough word for this... lol

However, hackers wouldn't actually have to remove the scorpion, just make it killable, with bonus points.

Kudos to the programmers for a very creative response to "piracy", although it's misguided.

This is a much better DRM method, and entertaining. And I bet it's harder to actually get rid of than it is to crack the game.

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It isn't. The only difficulty it presents is that it isn't something standardized to a specific type of DRM and it adds an extra layer of work to what the crackers have to accomplish to make a successful crack.

In truth, they (crackers) like the challenge. In reality, it still ends up being defeated as all the other DRM out there.

Batman:AA did this too, where a part of the game where you have to glide over poisonous gas didn't work if the game detected piracy. So you would fall to your death.

This isn't really any better than normal DRM, and it certainly going to piss off legitimate users any less. They will still be stuck with false positives and make the game they paid for unplayable, in extremely rare cases, and in 99% of cases legitimate users will never notice this just like normal DRM.

Oh, and it doesn't really help any. The common pirates can hack out checks for DRM schemes, do they think they can't hack out other piracy checks just as easily?

It isn't. The only difficulty it presents is that it isn't something standardized to a specific type of DRM and it adds an extra layer of work to what the crackers have to accomplish to make a successful crack.

In truth, they (crackers) like the challenge. In reality, it still ends up being defeated as all the other DRM out there.

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I didn't say it was impossible to crack, I said it just makes it a bit more difficult. As it's not something they would be looking for right away. And it will fill the torrents and web pages with people crying.

Yeah, true. They race each other and that often means a preemptive strike. It happens frequently with Assassin's Creed because of their remote saving system. If they miss just one check, the game will crash and everything after that point becomes unplayable. They always get it fixed though.

I remember watching a vdieo from a Russian guy AVGN equivalent. He showed some pirated game cartridges than were legitimately sold in 80s/90s russia to their console counterparts.
Some Ninja TUrtles game that was a blatant copy from konami or something dealt with the piracy with a stuck ultra hard mode that won't let you kill the end boss. Altho that Russian guy said kids that time were super frustrated as they couldn't even know the game was pirated because it was sold in official stores. Also, they must have all been the 80s/90s South Korea because apparently ultra hard modes are common and still a lot of kids made it to the end (only to be traumatized for life).

But yeah such methods are a better way to deal with piracy than DRM for sure. You'd me more likely to say okay okay I buy the damn game just stop annyoing me.

Crackers wont catch this immediately because I doubt they play the game itself from start to finish. Theyre too busy crunching codes. Theyd successfully crack it later on (probly about a week), but then patch comes out for the game, fixing significant bugs and adding a new anti crack measure . End result, game will be too buggy for those with illegal copy, forcing them to buy the game

Crysis 2 was this buggy without any anti-piracy measures. I have original game and bugs in it were mostly so bizarre that you'd think it was done intentionally. They eventually fixed it but the bad taste remained.